“Momma’s Man” Finds Home at Kino, Not ThinkFilm

"Momma's Man" Finds Home at Kino, Not ThinkFilm

(Updated) Sundance sleeper hit “Momma’s Man,” which may be this year’s “Old Joy,” will not be handled in theaters by ThinkFilm, as I reported last week (and was already considered a done deal in the industry). Just last week, ThinkFilm even announced press screenings for the film, but today they were canceled, with all press requests directed instead to Kino International (which distributed “Old Joy”). Azazel Jacob’s intimate portrait of a young father who refuses to leave his parent’s New York loft was a hit with critics in Park City. The film is on schedule for an August 22nd release, now with Kino owning U.S. rights, the company has confirmed. More bad news for Think…

Here’s excerpts from my write-up on the film for a FilmCatcher Sundance wrap-up:

“Then there’s the fabulously understated “Momma’s Man,” which in its very title, broadcasts the pathetic state of its male protagonist. Directed by Azazel Jacobs, the film stars his own parents, noted avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and his wife Flo Jacobs as the father and mother of Mikey, a thirtysomething man who finds himself unable to leave their cluttered, womb-life New York loft and return to his wife and infant back in Los Angeles.

A wry and tender study of regression, “Momma’s Man” (also backed by Paul Mezey, give this man an award) shows Mikey digging into his high-school notebooks, singing immature songs from his adolescence (“Fuck Fuck You”) and commisserating with old-school chums who he clearly has nothing in common with anymore. Filled with brilliant instances of humor and pathos, and one magnificent inclusion of home-movie footage, “Momma’s Man” was this year’s quiet revelation, the sort of patient, intimate, handwoven film that gets lost at Sundance (see 2006’s Old Joy), but finds plenty of fans in the wider world of cinephilia.”